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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

What is your definition of JOY? Yesterday I had a great reminder of what brings me joy. My daughter comes over once a week to use our washer and dryer to do laundry for her family. Both my daughters and my son bring me joy. Of course, so much joy. But there's someone that makes me giggle with delight. You've probably guessed who.

When Abigail saw me yesterday, she not only hugged me, but she squeezed my neck. True love. I adore her. And her mommy too. Abigail's little brother is fun too. He is only 2 months old, but he smiles whenever he sees me. These little munchkins bring me so much JOY. So, I made some joyful cookies.

I started by making a JOY cookie cutter with fun reindeer, available HERE

and then I outlined my design

I really liked how they came out.

and to match Abigail's pretty dress from grandma

I made the mini cookies matching Abigail's outfit too because I thought it would be fun to package them together

I had a little bit of a rough morning. Want to see why? The big bolt on the side of my mixer has wiggled its way out several times, but this time it was intent on staying out.

Then it got worse...

So here's what I learned in case this ever happens to you. Lay the mixer on its side. For some reason this makes it a lot easier to get the bolt back in. Keep in mind that it will easily fall out the other side, so prepare for that. As moms we all have octopus hands, you'll probably need them for this type of fix. But it worked and I'm back to work in my kitchen.

and then I just HAD to get some Buzz Lightyear pajamas for little Abigail so that she could be a space ranger too!

I went on a 71-mile bike ride today. Trying to keep my eyes open to watermark photos was a challenge tonight to say the least. Would you believe I've had SEVEN flat tires so far in 2014? Talk about frustrating. If this streak doesn't end soon, I'll be turning in my pretty pink bike for a gym membership!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Have you ever played the White Elephant Game? For Christmas a few weeks ago, my family decided to do a couple new things and one was playing the White Elephant Game. If you haven't played it before, the basics are that you bring one wrapped gift to the party. When someone opens a gift, they can decide to keep it or steal someone else's gift. The gift can only be stolen a couple times and then it remains with that person. Some people bring gifts that are silly or fun or gifts that people will really want to steal. It's fun to see what gets stolen and what people end up with.

I went to a couple stores and found that it was difficult to find a gift when I didn't know who it was for. My husband went and bought a Chia Pet for his White Elephant gift to give, glad I didn't get that or have to take it home ;-). I ended up coming up with a fun idea instead. Since it was a white elephant game, I decided to make white elephant cookies. It warmed my heart that there was some logic brought to the game as people tried to figure out how many times the cookies would be stolen so that they could make sure to be the one to end up with my cookies!

I started by making a cookie cutter of a fun elephant with a big bow on her head and room for her trunk. Wouldn't she be fun for a baby shower too! I named her Ellie the Elephant. I have a friend with a daughter named Ellie and she even has pink hair :-) Cookie Cutter Available HEREDownload Tutorial Card HEREDownload Free Printable Cookie Bag Topper HERE

and outlined my design

Since it was a Christmas game, I made the bows in red and green.

and then I made a bunch of them.

Since I knew that I would also want the elephant cookie cutter to use in other events, not just the white elephant game, I also made a couple of grey elephants.

Then I wrapped up all the elephant cookies and put them in a pretty gift box for the game. I also made some cute cookie tags and I made some for YOU too. You can download the Christmas elephant cookie tags by clicking here.

So tell me have you ever played the White Elephant game? What did you bring home?

Oh and did you make sure to enter the Cristin's Cookies give-away on Facebook? We are celebrating 6,000 fans with a fun give-away of EITHER 2 cookie cutters or a box of cookies. You can see full details and enter the give-away by clicking here.

Thanks for reading everyone!

White Elephant blog background for today. THANK YOU to Amy of Happy Hearts Studios for making this fun paper set for my blog!